1

URBAN INTERVENTIONS AND HAPPENINGS

MEMORY

3

The city is a site of remembering and forgetting—a place where conservation ofthe present and preservation of the past aresimultaneously attempted but never fullyexhausted. Residue of the past and aspira-tions of the future are perceived alongside each other. Memory, like the architecture of the city, is in permanent evolution and vulnerable to alteration. The decision to commemorate, appropriate, or erase pieces and signs of the city controls influences collective memory. However, in the case of temporary and ephemeral events, when no physical work remains, the transmission of memory is solely reliant upon the archive and written document. When re-living a spatial experience no longer possible, photography, film, and text aid in perpetuating memory. The archaeological trace is not only found in historical ruins and monuments but also in the materiality of the mundane. In order to accurately convey a time-based event to a future audience, the author must frame it through secondary sources of documenta-tion. The context in which the archive is later viewed greatly impacts how it is received and understood.

“I am convinced that the future is lost some-where in the dumps of the non-histoical past;It is in yesterday’s newspapers, in the jejuneadvertisements of science-fiction movies, inthe false mirror of our rejected dreams.”

- Robert Smithson

4

1962CHICKEN

5

Allan KaprowPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

6

1964CUT PIECE

7

Yoko Ono

In the performance, Yoko Ono, sat kneel-ing on the stage at Carnegie Concert Hall Wearing her best suit with a pair of scissors in front of her. She asked members of the audience to approach the stage, and one at a time, cut off a piece of her clothing with the scissors. She remained motionless through-out the piece. Participants were allowed to keep her clothing shards.

8

1965HOVING HAPPENINGS

9

Tortil hum patque nox sedestratiae ma, depses estre it. Labit.Tiam et vivas senatus, cae, mante ium amdictore consulego consupere am tena, tam incepostrei pos acericae in horaet am hae, Ti. Us strum in su quid dere et consis. Dum inum in senatiem sena, Castem ses horbem iam ius. Mae nem dium tumus, nostro ia nentesi moente, Ti. coniciv erfica Satum Palarionsunu

18

Thomas HovingCentral Park , New York

10

1965Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

11

Marcel BreuerWashington, D.C.

12

1966FLUXHOUSES

13

Fluxhouses were formed in 1966 as co-op living spaces for artists, musicans, and dancers who were in need of living and production space. The area between Houston and Canal consisted of industrial buildings that were inexpensive and had open floor plans.

14

1966CHELSEA GIRLS

15

Andy WarholChelsea Hotel, New York

“The Chelsea was like a doll’s house in The Twilight Zone, with a hundred rooms, each a small universe. Everyone had something to offer and nobody seemed to have much money. Even the successful seemed to have just enough to live like extravagant bums.”

- Patti Smith

16

1967PLACID CIVIC MONUMENT

Claes OldenburgCentral Park, New York

Oldenburg’s first public monument was a performance behind the Metropolitan Mu-seum of Art, New York. A group of gravedig-gers assisted Oldenburg to dig a six-by-three-foot hole in the ground.

17

18

1967 A TOUR OF THE MONUMENTS OF THE PASSAIC

19

Robert SmithsonPassaic, New Jersey

Ruins in reverse.

20

196780 WOOSTER STREET

21

New York, New York

22

1968MONUMENT TO SIX MILLION JEWISH MARTYRS

23

Louis Kahn Battery Park, New York City

24

1968PROPOSALS FOR ART EDUCATION

25

George MaciunasNew York , New York

26

1969STREET WORKS IV

27

“Street Works IV” was sponsored by the Architectural League of New York and took place over a 23 day period in various loca-tions.

28

1969STREET WORKS IV

29

Marjorie StriderNew York, New York

30

1969FOLLOWING PIECE

31

Vito Acconci’s activity involved picking someone at random who was walking in the street and following them until they entered a private place that he couldn’t access. The duration of each following ranged from two minutes to eight hours. Acconci recorded the date and time of every move he made. A third individual was involved in order to photograph Acconci’s stalking.

32

33

34

1969-1974 PATTI SMITH & ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

35

36

1969POLIS ‘76

37

38

1971DUETS ON ICE

39

Laurie Anderson performed in the streets of New York during the 1970’s. Her most-cited performances, Duets on Ice, involved her playing the violin alongside a musical record-ing while wearing ice skates with the blades frozen into a block of ice. The duration of the activity depended on how long it took for the ice to melt. When the ice melted the piece was over. She spontaneously performed Duets on Ice in during the summer months in South Manhattan and in Central Park.

40

1971CLOCKWORK ORANGE

41

Stanley Kubrick, adapted from Anthony Burgess

42

1971ROOF PIECE

43

Although Trisha Brown was academically trained as an artist, she questioned the tradi-tional role of a stage and offered an alternate type of viewership. By opting to perform on outdoor rooftops in SoHo, she challenged the limitations of boundary in art exhibition. Because Roof Piece spans 15 blocks while only lasting 30 minutes, It was impossible for the viewer to perceive the performance in its entirety. She heavily incorporated improve and the audience’s participation into her work.

44

2011ROOF PIECE REINACTMENT

45

High Line, New York

46

1971FOOD

47

Located at Prince and Wooster St., Food, blurred the boundary between art and life. Head started with the help of Gordon Matta-Clark and several other local SoHo artists, Food simultaneously operated as a artistic venue and local restaurant. The menu was wildly bizarre, and guests such as Donald Judd commonly participated in preparing the food. Although Food does not exist today, a surviving documentary film chronicles a day in the life of the restaurant.

48

1971FOOD

49

50

1971M*A*S*H*

51

52

1971WALKING ON THE WALL

53

Trisha BrownNew York, New York

54

1970-1974112 GREENE STREET

55

New York, New York

112 Greene Street was an exhibition space that had no formal opening, no official name and any artists willing to install and dismantle his or her own work was welcome to partici-pate. The venue was open to the public and was a well known artists hang out in the early 1970’s.

56

1971BROOKLYN BRIDGE EVENT

57

Alanna Heiss organized more than 20 artists including Carl Andre, Tina Girouard, Jeffrey Lew, Keith Sonnier, Gordon Matta-Clark, Jene Highstein, Sol LeWitt, Richard Norus and Dennis Oppenheim for a 3-day event celebrating the birthday of the Brookyn Bridge.

Matta-Clark cooked a whole pig under the Brooklyn Bridge and served 500 pork sand-wiches as part of a performance.

58

1973 CLOCKSHOWER

59

Gordon Matta-ClarkNew York, New York

Matta-Clark climbed to the top of the Clocktower skyscraper in New York and shampooed, shaved, and brushed his teeth while suspended from the center of the clockface.

60

1974SPLITTING

61

Gordon Matta-ClarkEnglewood, New Jersey